Facebook buys India-based app performance startup Little Eye Labs [Update]

Update: Just over a month after the rumors, Facebook has made the acquisition as a post on Little Eye Lab’s blog and an email from Facebook representatives both confirm. No price has been revealed, but we understand it is $10-$15 million in value.

“Current customers of Little Eye will receive further information on plans to offer a free version of Little Eye until June 30, 2014,” the Bangalore-based company explains.

The startup’s entire team will move to Facebook HQ in the US, so this deal will not mirror the acquisition of Onavo, which Facebook is using to create its first office in Israel.

Original article continues as below…

Facebook is reportedly closing in on its first acquisition in India, according to local reports that link the social networking giant to Little Eye Labs, a Bangalore-based company that produces a mobile app crash testing service.

Business Standard reports that Facebook “is in talks” to acquire the startup, which graduated the first GSF India accelerator program last year, with a deal expected to be sealed within a few weeks. No price has been reported, however.

Little Eye Labs is founded by ex-IBM and Apple employees and is a testing service like Crashalytics, the company Twitter acquired earlier this year, but it is expressly aimed at gauging mobile apps performance before they are released to the public.

Facebook acquired Israeli app analytics firm Onavo in October, and, as a company with multiple applications available for iOS and Android, there are plenty of reasons Little Eye might have caught admiring glances from Facebook.

Any deal would not only mark Facebook’s first acquisition in India, but would be a breakthrough for the Indian tech community and a proof point for founder Rajesh Sawhney’s belief that India can provide world-class technology and services.

Facebook reportedly offered no comment in response to a request from Business Standard. We’ve contacted Facebook and Little Eye Labs and will update this post with any comment we’re given.

Headline image via Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images